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Sunday, 18 October 2009

The Jaraseom Jazz Festival and a few other pictures

These benches are popular drinking spots for students near my place. One morning I headed out early...ish to see this. It made me happy.

Downtown Seoul at night looks great when I bring my tripod.The lady with purple hair didn't notice.I went to a cocktail bar with a buddy and it was really really good. Nice mojito, amazing side-dishes, and halfway through the night, we realized that every glass we'd drunk from was shaped differently forom the others. So we took pictures, of course.

This kid was in a subway station, holding a sign saying, "Don't run on the escalator" in front of his face, to hide his shame at being busted. It's not the first time I've seen kids holding signs at this station... whoever's responsible for using shame to punish kids' bad behavior might be onto something, though.And girlfriendoseyo and I went to Jaraseom, an island near Chuncheon where they have an annual jazz festival.It was beautiful out there.and busy.and pretty at nightand the fall colors are kicking in for real now. it's great.though the English on the signs wasn't always the best.and of course a few pictures out the train window, on the way back.Meanwhile, we saw a bunch of jazz acts, including this guy, Avishai Cohen, a bass-player from Israel, who created a really nice soundspace as he played. He had a mellow gravelly, but mellow voice -- like Sting, but less whiny, and his drummer was really cool, and Girlfriendoseyo and I just generally really enjoyed the show. Plus, when he was really into the music, he made funny faces - his face looked like it had no bones in it - and stuck out his tongue, but it didn't matter, because he was really into his music. I liked him. You can learn more about him here, at his website.

One of the things about music is that it's almost always better live than on a recording, but of all the genres, I'm convinced that Jazz is the one that improves the most, upon hearing it live. There's really nothing like the experience.

Oh yeah, and we saw the Band Formerly Known As The Gypsy Kings, too, and they flamenco'd the HELL out of their set.

More on the jazz thingy later, if I get around to youtubing the video I took.

5 comments:

Great pics, and looks like a fun time. I'm especially glad to see the tripod shot of that stream in Seoul. I think I was there in the same area, but my nighttime flash snapshots gave no sense of the surroundings at all.

ME! (in photo form)

"If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame IT, blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place." -Rainer Maria Rilke